Mar. 5, 2018, 6:00 a.m.

Student David Gaines of Alameda Science and Technology Institute with a Dr. Martin Luther King quote. "Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education." - Dr. King pic.twitter.com/Vqtj8CJHlB

A group of Oakland-area students this weekend stood alongside major civil rights figures as part of the Faith and Politics Institute Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage tied to the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who was among those beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, asked the students for the first time to play an active role in the events by giving speeches and presentations.

“Especially as a young person, we don’t get this type of exposure just in school,” Laelah Jackson, 16, of Berkeley said in an interview.

Wealthy Hollywood producer Steve Bing is teaming up with other entertainment bigwigs to host a fundraiser this month for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign for governor.

The event’s co-hosts include Peter Chernin, producer of the blockbuster movie “Black Panther,” and Paramount Pictures Chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos. The fundraiser is being held March 14 at the Crossroads restaurant in Los Angeles.

In a video posted on Facebook, she says: "We are on the same team, and our mission is to flip the 49th. That is why, with such a crowded field of candidates in this race, I've decided the best way to accomplish this mission is for me to step out." https://t.co/YrVZqO2zrf

Mar. 1, 2018, 12:03 p.m.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was optimistic Thursday that the Republican-controlled Congress can pass comprehensive gun legislation, but said she doesn’t expect an assault weapons ban to be part of such a measure.

“It might not be [an] assault weapon ban, but practically anything short of that is what we would expect,” Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said at her weekly news conference. “That might take longer. We need to have the best package we can get done now.”

President Trump seemed to embrace a variety of bipartisan proposals to address gun violence at a White House meeting Wednesday, and urged Republicans to consider adding an assault weapons ban to a popular bipartisan Senate background check bill. The moment left the author of the ban, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, outwardly showing glee. She’s pushed to reinstate the ban since a GOP-controlled Congress let it expire in 2004.

Mar. 1, 2018, 8:37 a.m.

President Trump on Wednesday threatened to delay building border barriers in California until his long-promised wall goes up elsewhere, seemingly slinging another arrow in his running battle with the nation’s most populous state.

Mar. 1, 2018, 3:00 a.m.

For a party halfway in the grave, the news thudded like another shovelful of dirt — thwack! — heaved atop its coffin: The Republican Party may soon slip into third place among registered California voters, trailing Democrats and self-declared independents.